Wearing thin…
[Video]
[5.12]
Alfred Soto: Is this Cate Le Bon? I can’t imagine shaking their ass to this arhythmic quasi-disco.
[3]
Jibril Yassin: Let it be known for the record: Tame Impala are a far more interesting band when following their pop muses than when offering up the psych-rock their fans desire. The best Tame Impala songs search for meaning in something, and “Patience” seeks to find it in the languid grooves of disco. But Tame Impala are a band of studio rats, and “Patience” is a fruit of that clean austerity, sounding lush and full of life. It’s by no means a knockout — I miss the forward-first momentum the band learned to harness on Currents — but it does succeed in incorporating more of Kevin Parker’s fantastic instincts as a pop songwriter all the while holding to the band’s ability to evoke wonderment amid a groove.
[6]
Vikram Joseph: “Patience” shows up in a flash suit with a glass of champagne in its hand, daring you to think the very worst of it, and then proceeds to charm the pants off you. Those gleaming hotel-lobby piano chords and Kevin Parker’s louche falsetto sound pretty obnoxious, don’t they; and yet, the song draws me in with its luxuriant palanquin of keyboard pads, sparkly “Missing U” synth-glitter and a surprising vulnerability. “Just growin’ up in stages / livin’ life in phases / another season changes / and still my ways are aimless,” Parker sings, both confession and self-empowerment; as a statement about being in your early 30s, not adrift exactly but certainly not anchored, just living life as well as you can and trying not to let expectations burden you too much, it feels resonant.
[7]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: The hook’s just barely competent enough to make this worthwhile. The lyrics are wistful in a way that makes Kevin Parker’s wispy voice justified. There’s something moving about a song that uses its all-encompassing disco world as a refuge from the real one, the results only the bare minimum levels of satisfactory. For everyone who moves through life hoping for things to look up, “Patience” is a reminder of a seemingly helpless, anxiety-filled state of living.
[5]
Iris Xie: Would the group that we understand as Tame Impala exist without the combination of that loopy, vibrant drumming and that “swooshy” synth, which sounds both like an airplane soaring overhead and a large wave cresting over you? At this point, they’ve turned into the Hostess Cakes factory of a hazy, oceanic nostalgia that is packaged neatly for consumption for any type of weather condition you are in. That’s on brand for them, but “Patience” seems even more subdued and underwater than their usual, but should satisfy the itch for those who have been waiting for more of that same. For me, I liked this song a lot better when it was called Miguel – waves (Tame Impala) remix.
[6]
Josh Love: I should probably be more fair to Tame Impala and try and divorce the utterly dumbfounding outsized acclaim Kevin Parker has received from an unbiased assessment of his music. If I do that, “Patience” does possess some redeeming qualities, specifically a sturdy groove and a genuinely arresting piano melody. On the other hand, Parker’s vocals are as ineffectual as ever and he somehow manages to sing the line “Time waits for no one” in 2019 with a straight face. So I guess I’m back to being dumbfounded.
[5]
Ashley Bardhan: This song is ABBA for white men who know how to tie more than one kind of knot.
[4]
David Moore: I’m assuming Rihanna is eventually going to cover all of these. I’ll wait.
[5]